Almost a Month Old Already

Little Bella will be a month old this Tuesday, and I haven't posted once. Given that this is the fifth time I've sat down to write something, and then decided I needed the sleep more than I needed to write, I thought I'd just leave a note saying all is well here. Bella is sweet, the kids adore her, and I'm starting to get back into life again. We started up Adara's homeschooling again this week, and next week the fall activities for the kids start up. Trev goes back to work on Monday, and although I think things will be rather chaotic for a while, I'm reasonably confident we'll all survive. *grin*

Back to baby-tending and then (hopefully) some sleep!

Baby Date

Just a quick note to say that the C-section has been booked for the morning of the 18th, a week today. I have to be there at 9am, and the operation will be at 11am, provided I'm not bumped back because of emergencies. I will come back and provide some more details later, right now I've got to get Adara's homeschooling done.

Almost Time

My heavens, the third trimester has just zoomed by, and now we're just a few weeks away from (Lord willing) welcoming our new little girl home. Yes, that's right, the second ultrasound indicated that the wee one is going to be wearing pink rather than blue. Adara is thrilled about having a little sister, and to be honest, I was sort of hoping for a girl myself.

We're pretty much set up here, as much as we can be. We've moved Adara and Con and their respective carseats to the back row of the van, and they're happy as clams about the change. Not only can they see more, but they can reach their own cupholders, which is apparently a very big thing. The baby's carseat (not installed yet but cleaned and ready to go) will go in the middle row behind the driver's seat, and then the console between the two middle seats has been removed, so that the other middle seat is right next to the baby's, but folded down and out of the way. That way if we have an extra passenger, we just flip the seat up. We've set up the crib, change table, rocking chair and all that baby goodness in a corner of our room (our bedroom is quite big, so there's room), and will deal with the 'who's rooming with whom' question once we see how light a sleeper the little one is. We've talked with Adara about the three days I'll be spending at the hospital - Con's too young to get it, unfortunately, so it will come as an unpleasant surprise to him. Hopefully he will have enough fun with his Daddy that he won't mind too much. I've tried to buy a few things each week to prepare, so we have itty-bitty diapers and all that too.

I go in to see the surgeon on Monday, to give him all of my information and to get a date set for the surgery. I am still so reluctant to have a planned C-section, but feel like I have exhausted all other options. At least this way I will skip the labour part. Once we have a date set, Trev can finalize his leave from work, and we can do the last preparatory details. I'll post again once all of the details are in place, and after that, who knows? Depends on how long it takes me to get enough sleep to function again. Good thing babies are so worth it!!

Close to the 6 Month Mark

I'm definitely an obviously pregnant lady these days, but I don't mind much. Just a few more months to get through now. We're still making progress on my "Get Done before Baby Arrives" list, and although Trev's time off didn't feel like much of a holiday, it was certainly a very productive time. We got a lot of sorting and tidying done, tackled a few long-neglected tasks, and tried to have a bit of fun too.

The time we spent out in Saskatchewan was great, although the drives out and back were not. The back spasms that plagued me with my first two pregnancies came back to haunt me within an hour of setting out, and made life uncomfortable. Sitting for extended periods of time will be avoided for the summer. Still, it was great to see Trev's family.

Trev's back at work now, and we've settled into the regular routine again. I like routine, and the kids are settling down a bit now that things are more predictable. Adara's got a new (at least to her) bike this year, and is loving riding about whenever we head outside. Connor isn't much interested in his tricycle and prefers running along. We're enjoying the start of warmer weather, and are outside a lot. Life is good.

Update Prior to Heading Out

I've let time slip by again since posting - but I've been busy, which is good. Adara's soccer season has been going for about three weeks now, and she's loving it. Trev is enjoying being the team's assistant coach, plus his ultimate frisbee season has started. He entered to be on an ultie team for the 'spring session' and the 'summer session', thinking they would be one after another. Amusingly, they are concurrent, with the spring session starting only a few weeks before the summer session. So he has ultie on Monday and Wednesday nights, as well as soccer on Tuesdays.

Trev took Adara for her photo session for dance class this week, and came out emphatic that she would not be in dance again next year. He said it was like being backstage at a beauty pageant, with these little girls in the pouffy dresses, with hair curled and makeup on. So we told her she wouldn't be taking dance next fall, and that she'd be in a music class (Orff music lessons) and a multi-sport class instead. She didn't care a whit; I think the fun of the class was all about the social interaction. I'm quite excited about the sports class, as it's specifically for homeschoolers and during the day, and she can keep taking it at different levels as she gets older. It teaches the kids the fundamentals of several sports, giving them a chance to practice each. I'm part of a local Yahoo homeschoolers group, and the parents who have reviewed the program have had only positive things to say.

We're heading out to Saskatchewan early tomorrow morning, and everything's all packed up. I should get some sleep. Before I forget (again), here are some pictures of the "Day Out with Thomas" we went to (both kids love the Awdry books).

Adara managed to convince the face-painter to combine her love of pink and her fascination with cats, and was thrilled with the results.

Five already?

My little girl will be five on Wednesday...it's mind-boggling, really. I'm loving watching her develop into the wonderful little person she's becoming, though. Such a leader - if you show the slightest hesitation about what you're doing next, she's in there trying to organize the whole family's day. She's not bossy, honestly; but she was born with a desire to lead, and the Lord is going to do amazing things with her life. We're working at finding a middle ground, not killing her natural leader instincts, but making sure she remembers that she must still defer to proper authority in the final decision, and also that she must respect the feelings of others and only lead where they are willing to let her take charge, rather than ramming in and bossing everyone about. It's definitely challenging, but I wouldn't miss it for the world.

While she's getting ready for her playdate/birthday celebration tomorrow (very low key, no presents, but still making her feel a little special) and then her birthday the next day, Connor is struggling with the cold his big sister is already finished with. The poor little guy has just been miserable the last 3 days, with fever, cough, stuffy runny nose, the whole bit. He's been almost permanently attached to me, which I don't mind when they're really ill. It gives me an excuse to sit still for a bit. *grin*

Lil' Baby Bump is growing happily, although the little blighter was so darn active during the ultrasound that they couldn't tell us the gender. Major disappointment for me, as I absolutely hate surprises. Such is life, though, and since it looked like he/she was normal and healthy in every regard, I'll just wait very impatiently for August. I console myself with the thought that we have sleepers in both colours already anyway. *smile*

Let's see, what else? Adara's having a ball with her dance classes, but we'll be finding an alternate activity next year. Reason? I've hit my limit. First of all, dance is about 3 times as much as her other activities. Strike 1. Secondly, I knew there was a recital at the end of Adara's dance season. I found out 2 months ago that the preschool costume for the recital looked like a spangly prom dress with crinolines. Strike number 2. The topper was the email I received today that outlines her hair and makeup requirements for three separate occasions: the picture night, the dress rehearsal, and the actual recital. That's it - strike 3, time for a new activity. We'll be leaning towards sports this fall, as she's so active, and if I can find her a drama program she'll be in that too. Nothing fancy, though, just fun and letting kids stay kids.

I need to go and finish setting up for the playdate tomorrow morning, so I can get some sleep. The little guy has been up every two hours with his cold, and I'm needing every bit of extra sleep I can get!

Getting Back to Good

I've really started feeling more like myself the last few days, which has done wonders for my attitude. I vacuumed both upstairs and down on Monday, which I'd been putting off for weeks, and did many other sundry little things that had been niggling at me. There's also all kinds of little updates I haven't gotten around to, so......

I'm loving the digital scrapbooking, although I do miss the hands on, paper matching part of doing it the old way. I've finished Connor's baby album already, and am slowly catching up on our and Adara's albums. My last completed page in those was from June 2006, so I do have a ways to go! Still, I'm determined to finish catching up before the baby comes (Lord willing) so that when the exhausted post-baby haze clears away, I only have months of photos to organize, not years worth.

I'm starting to slowly establish relationships with a few of the homeschooling moms I've met. We've got a regular playdate set up now on Tuesday mornings, and we're working at setting up a monthly coffee night for homeschooling moms of preschoolers in the NW of Calgary. I'm excited to think that Adara will have some friends who aren't so busy with preschool and two to four extracurricular activities that they'll actually have time to play together! I've met way too many kids through Adara's ballet and gymnastics classes that are already in that boat...at three. Skiing, skating, dancing, swimming, art, music - you name it, they're in it. I find it a little overwhelming, to be honest, and I do occasionally feel like I must be depriving Adara by keeping her to two activities maximum a season. But then I try to picture life down the road with three kids (or more), and them ALL in a bunch of activities, and I chuckle and relax again. If we wanted to live like that, we wouldn't be homeschooling in the first place.

We're still not sure if we're going to stick with the church we've been attending. It's a nice church, and there are some lovely people there, but everyone seems so...busy. It's hard to connect beyond a friendly hello. We'll give it some more time and see.

We're still not sure where the recent shifts in Suncor will take us. Trev still figures it's a 50/50 chance of heading up to Fort Mac within the year; he hopes to have more of an idea by the end of April. Frankly, I'm not too worried about it. Fort Mac was fine, we'll do all right if we move back. I'd just like to know, so I can think about which summer and fall activities to put the kids into. I guess in a way, I've gotten used to bouts of living in limbo; I don't like it, but it doesn't stress me out the way it used to.

I'd better go get some sleep; the little guy is coming down with a cold, and Adara wasn't quite herself today either. Even if the night goes well, there will likely be plenty of sick-type whininess tomorrow, and I'll need all the patience I can get.

A Sign of Spring

We got an email today with the info about what soccer team Adara (and Trev, since he'll be the assistant coach) will be on this season. Trev has a coaching clinic coming up in less than a month, and the season starts about 2 weeks after that. Makes me feel like spring is here already!

The only disappointment for Adara was that she's on the 'Lime' team - she was hoping for orange, as it's Trev's favourite colour. At first she was hoping for her favourite colour, pink, but I explained that as long as the teams had both girls and boys on them, pink was not going to be an option. *grin*

Sweetness

I'm having a very tough day today, coping with horrendous nausea. I've been nauseous pretty much for a month now, but today was the worst yet. I'm trying not to complain, mind you, but it's necessary to tell you that so the story makes sense. Trev (sweetie that he is) took the kids out to grab a bite to eat, because I simply could not deal with the idea of food, and he asked me whether he could get me anything. I told him the only thing I could think of was ginger ale...not that it's terribly good for me, but it's my 'comfort food' when I'm feeling sick.

Next thing I know, my precious girl comes downstairs clutching her coin purse with a very determined look on her face. She tells me she wants to spend the money she's saved in her piggy bank on ginger ale, to help me feel better. We couldn't talk her out of it, she wanted so badly to help.

Makes me think of Jesus telling the disciples we all need to become as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. What would life be like if we were all that spontaneously loving and generous?

Anyway, it touched my heart, and I just had to share.

Reason Found

So this obsessive need to get everything organized, simplified, all that? I think I've got it at least partly figured out. My new little ticker tells the tale - after 5 months of trying, we have a new little one on the way! Despite vicious morning/afternoon/evening sickness, I'm very excited, and so is the big T. Trev and I talked about waiting the traditional three months before telling anyone, but we wanted to share the news with close friends and family. Rejoice with us! Hurray!

We won't be telling the kids for a while yet - Connor won't care, and Adara will be too excited to wait another half a year. She's been praying for "another baby for Mommy and Daddy" for several months (and she often adds "or twins! or triplets!" at the end, which is kind of funny, but not really funny). She's going to be thrilled with the news. She just loves babies and toddlers.

As an ironically amusing side note, the Alberta government has finally seen the light and announced a little while ago that it was going to fund midwifery services. We were delighted, since we planned on having another child and this would save us about $3500. However, what we didn't see coming was that the small number of midwives in Alberta would be deluged with requests from expectant moms. I'm serious - here I am only 5 weeks along, and all of the midwife teams I've contacted are booked solid. *sigh* I'll keep trying, though, and I'm sure the Lord will lead me to the right people. I just never expected to have to compete so hard for a midwife!

One of the Busiest Weeks of the Year

I know this time of year is busy for everyone, but with our anniversary on the 16th and Connor's birthday on the 21st, it's been extra busy here! Here's a brief photo summary of some of the events of the week.

The Suncor children's Christmas party was on the 14th, and the kids had a blast. It was just right, lots to do but not too much, three inflated bouncy castles divided into age groups, and free gifts for all the boys and girls. The face painters were enormously talented; this was Adara's first time getting her face painted, and she looked awesome:


We finally got around to doing our annual gingerbread house on the 20th. Trev and Adara worked together and did a great job:


We didn't do too much for Connor's birthday, as he's really too little to understand the whole concept anyway. His biggest delight was the mylar birthday balloon, with the dessert of gingerbread cookies (he doesn't like cake much) and mango sorbet coming in a close second. This was his first time eating anything like ice cream (he's still lactose intolerant) and he loved it. He liked the presents too, even if he wasn't too sure why he was getting them. *grin*


We've gotten a few other things done too. Adara and I did up the gift bags of cookies for Trev's coworkers, which was fun. I've managed to get my papers sorted out, as well as my craft supplies. And I finished one of the two homemade gifts I had left to do - the other one will have to be finished in the New Year sometime, I've given up on finishing it on time. We'll be using some of Trevor's days off organizing what's left in the garage, and doing other odd jobs. I've figured out why I'm so driven to organize and simplify, but I'll go on at length about that another time.

Hard to believe tomorrow's Christmas Eve...for whatever reason, I haven't gotten into the spirit of the season much this year. Hope you have a great Christmas, wherever you are and whoever you're with.

Making a List, Checking It Twice

Nope, no Saint Nick here, but the listmaker in me is at it's strongest during the holidays. Especially with our anniversary, Connor's birthday, and Christmas all within days of each other. So far?

Christmas newsletter printed? Check.
Christmas cards written, addressed, stamped, and ready? Check.
Christmas packages to Ontario ready? Check.
Christmas and birthday presents purchased for the kids? Check.

What's left? Let's see, there's the cookies to bake and package up for Trev's coworkers, two homemade presents to finish (thankfully they don't need to be sent, so I have some time yet), presents to wrap, the tree to put up, and a gingerbread house to assemble (as a family). Busy, but not overwhelming.

I'm also looking forward to seeing some of the many holiday sights around here. The Zoo does a big light display (Zoolights) which we've seen in the past and loved; Airdrie (a town just outside of Calgary) has a walk-through light display that's phenomenal and well worth the drive; downtown Calgary has a light display; and Heritage Park has an 'Old-Fashioned Christmas' setup where all of the old buildings are decorated, the little chapel has choirs singing, and there's sleigh rides and games for the kids. The Suncor kids' Christmas party is a week tomorrow, and that should be fun despite the heavy emphasis on the big guy in red. It's all going to go by so fast!

A Chuckle

We were driving along in our minivan this past week when a car sped by us, sporting a number of rude bumper stickers, including "B*tch on Board" (just lovely). Adara peered at the car intently, and I winced. What would I have to explain? Then she asked me, 'Mommy, why does it say "Birch on Board"?' I quickly answered that a birch was a kind of tree, so perhaps the person liked trees. Adara agreed, and thought perhaps they had some logs in the trunk.

Whew. Issue evaded for another day. *grin*

That's all for me for now - children with head colds have me up most of the night, so I'm getting as much sleep as I can.

Heading to Saskatoon

I keep meaning to post, but the food allergy thing is still haunting me. It's not the oats (at least not just the oats), since I'm still completely exhausted by 8pm. I've done some reading suggesting that corn might be the culprit - I guess it's a common thing to be sensitive to both gluten and corn - so I'm eliminating that from my diet to find out. I hope I'm wrong, though, as that would eliminate a very convenient substitute for wheat-based things, as well as taking away my snacks of popcorn.

Anyway, we're headed off to SK to visit Trev's family for a long weekend. Trev managed to get both Friday and Monday off, so we'll have a nice visit. Since we're planning on leaving at 4 in the morning so that the kids can sleep through at least part of the drive, I'd better scoot. But I wanted to post this, a picture of the results of our first real snowfall:



The snow up north was always so dry, we made one snowman in three years and he was puny. This snow was perfect, and it was so fun to see Adara and Con's eyes light up when we finished the big guy! They still rush to the window every morning to see if he's still there.

Catching Up

I've been having a hard time lately, and a lot of it has to do with the exhaustion I've been feeling. I've been so tired, all of the time. I've been going to bed pretty much right after the littles do, and even then the next morning I've still been dragging. No blogging, no emailing, no anything really. I couldn't figure out why. Then I read a blog post by a dear friend regarding how much more energy she felt she had when she cut out the carbs from her breakfast, and a light went on in my brain. One of the major symptoms I'd had with reacting to gluten was how tired I had been. And oatmeal is one of the 'iffy' grains for those sensitive to gluten. And I'd been eating oatmeal almost every morning lately (the kids love it). I cut out the oatmeal, and voila! All of a sudden I can stay up past 9! What a relief.

So to catch you up on my week, the most exciting thing that happened was that Mom and I took the kids to Banff on Tuesday. It was an unusually warm day for October, and we figured we'd better take advantage of it, especially since the mountains are only an hour away. The drive went well, and the scenery was lovely. We even came across a herd of mountain goats wandering along the path we were following. Connor was so excited, he kept following them and yelling "Sheep! Sheeeeeeep!", which made them quite nervous, poor things. Anyway, here are a few pictures:





It was a fun trip, and I'm glad we went. Looks like winter weather will be hitting us starting next week (highs of zero predicted) but that's alright, we've had a lovely fall.

Other stuff? Well, I got my hair cut yesterday, quite a change in style. I'll have to get Trev to take a picture. I didn't lose much in length, but it's all layered, very different look. What else...we're still weeding through the stuff in the garage, posting things on Freecycle, taking stuff to the dump, donating clothes to charities, all that jazz.

I'm really getting serious about cracking down on the amount of junk we eat. I got a few books on the subject, "In Defense of Food" and "What to Eat", which take you through how much processing most food is subjected to, and how to avoid the worst of it. I don't want a book to tell me what or how to eat, I just want to inform myself on what's in the stuff we eat regularly, and how we can avoid the additives. I'm sure I'll be doing more posting once I've done some more reading.

That's about it, I guess. Trev is putting up the Christmas lights on the house this weekend, while it's still nice, and we'll be trying to get more done in the garage. Hi-ho, hi-ho, but at least I'm not falling asleep doing it! *grin*

Trudging Along

The kids and I have all got vicious head colds, so with Trevor away so much I've dropped into survival mode of getting up with the kids and going to sleep at the same time as the kids. Extra sleep has always helped me get better faster, and it also makes me a more patient mama during the day. With the whininess and clinginess that colds bring, I need all the patience I can get! It's made for virtually no Internet time, or phone time, or...well, anything time, really...but we're getting through in a relatively happy way, which is the important thing. I'm hoping we'll be feeling better by Sunday; Trev and I have invited his coworkers over for an informal get-together that afternoon. Several of them have children close to Adara's age, so she's excited about having new playmates for a few hours, and I'm looking forward to meeting the folks that Trev talks about every day.

On the home organizing front, I've gotten into the local Freecycle group, and am already starting to farm out the things we're finding we don't need anymore. Good examples would be the five fans we have (we needed them to survive the hot summers in Fort Mac) and the Lil Tykes outdoor castle we simply can't fit in our much smaller new yard. I have a feeling we'll be giving away a bunch of things, as we're both committed to living as simply as possible. Looking at the piles of stuff stored away in our garage has been a tremendous motivation to make sure we travel more lightly from now on.

It's been a disappointing week for the kids, as they've been too sick to go to the pool, gymnastics, or the special homeschool activities at the Zoo today. Corinne (my neighbour) and her son Nelson (almost 4) have taken Adara to the playground, as she's the healthiest one of the bunch and Connor really needs his nap today. That should help Adara feel a little better about missing so much stuff that she's been looking forward to.

Speaking of Adara, she gets her first real experience of being obviously different this coming week...the girls in her dance class on Monday are supposed to come in their Halloween costumes. I've been straightforward with her, and given her the options of either going without a costume (knowing she'll likely be the only one without one) or skipping the class and doing an alternate activity with Connor and I. She's thinking about it. She's enough of her father's daughter that she's not shy about being different, so she may just go anyway. We'll have to see. We've planned a "Hurray! Christmas is Coming" party for our family for Halloween night, and are looking forward to it. I got two Christmas videos from the library today, and we'll make some special cookies and have fun as a family. I just have to remember to disconnect the doorbell that evening!

Structure

Warning: For other list-makers only, all others will likely be bored silly.

I think I've settled on a basic schedule for the weekdays...well, I suppose it's only a loose schedule really, more like a list of things that need to get done, preferably in the order I've set out. Since Adara and Connor are so active, I've tried to have some outing or another each day; I figure especially in the winter, that will make home life much happier. With the exception of Mondays, since Adara's dance class is in the afternoon, we do our outings in the mornings, come home for lunch and Connor's nap, and then take it easy in the afternoons. I'll skip the specific details (if you're really interested, I can email my Excel spreadsheet to you) but our outings are as follows:

Monday - Adara dance class, Connor gets time with Nana
Tuesday - groceries and errands
Wednesday - time at the pool (I found a great rec center that has an indoor water park, they have a special deal for parents with kids under 6 on Wednesday mornings)
Thursday - gymnastics and maybe the Zoo, depending on the weather
Friday - visit the library, Adara gets time with Nana for a few hours in the afternoon

We'll see how it works out now that the weather is getting colder, but I think it's flexible enough that it should provide a good framework. Another thing I'm doing this time around is doing all the weekly housework one morning a week, rather than spreading it out over the week. It actually only takes about an hour and a half to vacuum, clean the bathrooms, sweep the hardwood, dust, and water the plants, and then it's all done for the week. I've chosen to mop the hardwood on the weekends when Trev can take the kids out for an hour or so; it just seems easier on all of us that way.

It's kind of amusing how much happier I am when I know what needs to happen next. And how proud I am of my little spreadsheet schedule. Whatever works, right? *grin*

Gymnastics Excitement

We went to the kids' first gymnastics class on Thursday morning - it was everything I was hoping it would be. Small enough that everyone gets some attention, safe enough that they can climb all over the place and not get hurt, and big enough that there's room for everyone to be doing an activity without long lineups. The instructor is good too; she sets up a circuit of different activities, but she also understands that little ones don't always follow directions very well. One of the highlights was a pit filled with soft foam blocks, and Connor delighted in climbing up on the vaulting horse and throwing himself into the pit over and over again. Adara preferred the trampolines (three!) and is getting the knack of bouncing down on her bum and then back up on her feet again.

I went with this class because it's for 1 to 5 year olds, which means both kids can be in the same class, and because I'd heard through the homeschooling grapevine that the instructor welcomed parental involvement (unlike some which banish them as soon as possible). Unfortunately, it's a twenty minute drive away, which had me hesitating until I realized that it's about 2 minutes away from the zoo. So we've made Thursday mornings into gymnastics/zoo mornings; as long as the weather is decent (warmer than -15 or so), we'll bundle up and go to the zoo after the class and make the morning even more fun that way (plus save on gas).

Glorious Fall Days

Despite the house issue looming over us, we had a lovely weekend. Yesterday we went to the corn maze just south of Calgary, and had a blast making our way through the maze and then visiting the petting zoo and the pumpkin patch. Here are my cuties visiting the pumpkins:



And then today we visited Nose Hill Park (don't ask me about the name, I have no idea), which is essentially miles and miles of grasslands, with trails all over the place. It feels like you've left the city and stepped back in time to before the settlers arrived. Honestly. It was sunny but very windy, so we put on lots of layers and went out into the hills and had a birthday picnic for my Mom. Got some really cute pictures:







I'm just loving this warm fall weather. We've still got highs of 15, in October! Can you tell I've been living up north for a few years? *grin*

Funny Kids

Life is full of precious little memories, and they slip away so easily. I'm going to try to write more of them down so I won't forget.

Yesterday, Adara started singing the "Veggie Tales" theme song in a silly voice. She sounded absolutely hilarious, and I couldn't get over how much she reminded me of Trevor, my beloved entertainer. I laughed and laughed, and she smiled at me and said "I'm like Daddy, Mommy - I like making you laugh." What a sweetheart.

Another funny memory to share, but not as 'sweet', more like pungent: this morning, Connor began shrieking in panic from his crib. When I ran in, I found he had taken his sleeper off and flung it out of the crib, and then undone his (poopy) diaper. My finicky son, who hates getting food or any other gunk on his hands had accidentally gotten poop on his hands from the diaper, and had then (in I assume panic) rubbed his face. He was shrieking for a cleanup! It was too funny to be upset about...I just popped him out of the crib and cleaned him up, and he was so relieved. I don't think he'll open a diaper again. *grin*